Potential buy

So, I get paid on the 16th of December, I used to be a massive Assassins Creed fan but after the ending to 3 I was practically forced away from it altogether. I recently read up on the AC4 modern day story which revealed that it will explain how the series continues. So here is a question im posting for you all: Should I buy AC4, or find something else? If not AC4 what game would you reccomend for ps3?

Happy holidays.

Hey guys and girls, thanksgiving is upon us. Have a great break. And play PLENTY of vidya games while we are out. Ill be playing Battlefield 4 and Assassins Creed 3. What will you all be playing?

Path of Exile - Character Build Customization at its Best

Path of Exile Open Beta Trailer (the game is now out of open beta, but this is still a great trailer)

If there is one thing I enjoy in games, it is being able to play a character how I want to play my character - and if there is one thing Path of Exile does incredibly well, it is provide effectively endless options for making characters.

Path of Exile is an action role playing game, similar to games like Diablo 2, where your goal is to progress through the game world, leveling up your character and getting better gear for your character. Your character, one of the six (seven as of release, once you unlock her) exiles, is sent to the continent of Wraeclast for various crimes they may have committed.

Your exile of choice washes up on the shoreline of Wraeclast, waking up next to a dying exile. After some conversation and a most likely brief fight, you begin making your way up the coast armed with a weapon that you found and a skill gem, which is how skills are able to be used in Path of Exile. If you don't skip enemies and simply fight them all, you will quickly hit level 2. You get a nice little notification on your toolbar that you have unspent skill points, and you click the button, and you find out just how grand the skill tree is.

The Shadow's starting area on the skill tree.

The game very effectively uses the first 10 or so minutes of gameplay to show you how the game works.

• There are no preset skills, instead you use Skill Gems to have access to whatever skill you want. This means you are able to use whatever skill you want on whatever character you want, if you are of a high enough level and have the required stats to place it in a socket. The sockets are also sometimes linked, which later allows you to apply Support Gems to augment your Skill Gems (demonstrated in the video, with things such as Fireball linked to Chain)
• This game will not pull any punches in terms of difficulty, even in the first areas. Watch your health or die. I did not mention this, but in the very first area of the game, Twilight Strand, the enemies, especially the very first boss (a minor one, but still counts as a boss), will do a decent amount of damage, and if you do not use your flasks that are given to you at the start, you will die. This game does not hold your hand and tell you that you will get to the level cap eventually, it tells you to fight for your life to maybe get past act one.
• The Passive Skill Tree is very robust, allowing for a large variety of builds. What I feel is the main draw of this game is the Passive Skill Tree. All of the exiles share the same passive skill tree, with the differences between them being where they are on the skill tree at the start (the Shadow, for instance, is near the top right), and their starting stats. This allows you to make whatever character you want and have it work. You could turn a betrayed assassin into a hulking juggernaut of beating things to death with a blunt object, if you want.

 As you play the game, you will become more knowledgeable of the game's mechanics, and realize you could make a better build. There are no free full respecs, instead you have to earn respec points through quests and finding Orbs of Regret in order to get passive skill tree points back.

This is a truly great game, if you are willing to lose. If you get upset when you die in games, turn back now, because this game will catch you off guard on multiple occasions, and you will die. You could have the most durable, hardest to kill character possible, and you can still die if you make a big enough mistake. In fact, this happened to me, and as I play solely on the Hardcore leagues (when you die, your character is removed from the Hardcore league and placed into Standard league), I ended up losing two unique items, a lot of good gear, and about six hours worth of leveling. Did I quit? No - in fact, I went ahead and made a brand new character with a brand new build and gave it another go. (That character also died.)

There is no one build to rule them all, no one skill that will outperform all others, no character that is strictly better than others. However, that is the fun of it. It frees you to try new skills, new ideas. My suggestion to new players is not to look up guides, not to learn much about the game beyond the bare basics. The game starts off simple enough to where simply by winging it and playing at your leisure, you can get decently far. In fact, my first character made it to Cruel Difficulty in Act 2 of 3 before I could no longer continue on him, but the lessons I learned from that character were invaluable, and I would have just been disappointed if I had used some other build with various intricacies and mechanics that I did not yet understand.

The game website can be found at www.pathofexile.com, and the game is also available on Steam. It is completely free to play (and the developers are outspoken about their dislike of "pay to win" microtransactions - the closest you will get to pay to win is extra stash space, and you do not need it to play the game even to the end), so it is worth a try. Feel free to comment on what you like and don't like about the game in the comments section.

Walyn Curtis

Game Idea Pitch Next Meeting.

Hey everybody. I'm Cody. Zachary has invited me to come pitch a game idea for everyone at tomorrow's  meeting at 6 p.m. I'm really excited to be given the opportunity. I'll be giving a short powerpoint presentation on a story I've been working on for a few years. Hopefully some of you (or perhaps all of you) will like the idea and will want to work on some concept art and story boards or even quest lines with me. ^_^

Now, we aren't worried about coding or anything until everyone has taken the classes to work with. We simply don't have the knowledge. However, if you write or draw, or even listen/make music, I'd love for the GDC to be involved with it all. See you guys tomorrow, Thursday at 6 p.m. In  Brinson 221.


~C.

Next meeting

    Our next meeting will be next Thursday, November 21. This is because Anime Club is hosting a Super Smash Brothers Brawl tournament on Nov. 11th at 6 P.M. to fund their anime convention trip. Although we will not be meeting this week, I encourage all of you to join or watch the tournament. This is an opportunity to observe what gamers enjoy about competitive gaming (specifically the fighting genre) and may introduce you to some new friends.

     The tournament will be in Wilson 223 and costs $3 dollars to play (watching is free). Read Anime Club's Facebook page for more information.

     I hope to see you there and/or next week.

Our blog

Hello fellow gaming enthusiasts.This is our blog.

The main point of this blog is to share more detailed information about game creation than Facebook or Twitter can provide. This blog is also an extension of our regular meetings and covers what happens in between meetings at Southern Arkansas University. Visit often to receive the most up-to-date news surrounding Game Development Club, such as KATV visiting our campus a few days ago.

While giving you information about game development, this blog is also a place to share some of your ideas. Post and comment about game development or articles you wish to link to other members. The more sharing, the more educated we become outside our classes. So consider this as your voice in a large group of friends talking about video games.

Ultimately, this blog is what we make it, so participate in and enjoy our Game Development Club blog.